This ice cream truck is one of the last of its kind in the Okanagan

Permeating the hot summer air in Kelowna is the melodic song of one of the last remaining ice cream trucks in the Okanagan.

Behind the wheel of the mobile treat machine is Jim Linnell, the new owner of Scooter’s Ice Cream, a nostalgic ice cream truck.

“I’ve only been selling ice cream since the first of July this year,” Linnell told Kelowna10. “I’ve got my kids to blame for all that.”

Linnell said his daughter bought an ice cream truck on Vancouver Island, and when she took him out on it, he was instantly hooked.

When he saw that the owner of Scooter’s Ice Cream was selling the business, he decided that he had to jump on the opportunity.

The popularity of the truck has a lot to do with nostalgia, he said. The excitement and tantalizing sound of the truck’s music brings out joy in children and adults alike.

“We get parents bringing kids out for the first time to have the experience of being at an ice cream truck,” he explained. “They want them to buy an ice cream and experience it and see what they experienced as kids as well.”

Linnell travels all around Kelowna, doing loops of neighbourhoods and beaches, at times even receiving calls from kids or parents requesting that he come to their neighbourhood.

He said sometimes several households of people will gather outside to buy from him. People will even go as far as to pull their cars out in front of him and slow down so they can stop him to buy ice cream.

“I come out whether it’s rain or shine, and people come out with umbrellas and shorts,” he remarked. “They don’t care, and they come out and buy ice cream anyhow. I think the keyword is nostalgia.”